We recently held our 23rd annual J. A. Woollam Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Workshop and CompleteEASE software course.
It was our biggest yet, with record attendance!
The event was hosted with the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and the CORNERSTONE Silicon Photonics MPW (Multi Project Wafer) service at the University of Southampton. The ORC is one of the world’s leading institutes for photonics research.
Our partners, the J. A. Woollam Company, is solely focused on the advancement of spectroscopic ellipsometry. Since 1987 they have led the industry in research and development with 200+ patents.
Workshop
This one day event was open to those who are experienced with ellipsometry or new to it. The format of the workshop included an introduction, fundamentals of ellipsometric data analysis, and an overview of ellipsometric applications in both research and production. New emerging applications were also highlighted.
Application engineers from J. A. Woollam gave talks on the following topics:
- Theory
- Applications
- Products
- Demonstration
- J A Woollam alpha-SE Ellipsometer
“The 23rd Annual spectroscopic ellipsometry workshop organised by J. A. Woollam at the University of Southampton was a great opportunity to grasp the working principles of light polarisation and its application in thin film characterisation. The session talks and discussion throughout the day were very informative and helped to realise the real-world impact of this characterisation technique. The audience was good mix of delegates from academia and industry, thereby providing the perspective from both lab-based research application and application on a production scale.
The samples running session gives an accurate representation of equipment performance on challenging samples from the audience while the data analysis afterward this session corelates very well with the talks earlier in the day. I also thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the optical research facilities at University of Southampton as a part of this workshop, so a great choice of venue as well.”
Dr Cecil Cherian Lukose, Scientific Officer, High vacuum and thin films technology, Department of Physics & Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University
CompleteEASE Course
This three day course aimed to teach attendees how to get the very best from the CompleteEase Software. These short courses include extensive training through examples and interaction between other students and instructors.
Course Content:
- Ellipsometry overview and CompleteEASE Navigation
- Transparent materials and non-idealities
- B-Spline function
- General Oscillator Modeling
- Thin absorbing films and Multi-Sample Analysis
- Mapping and Dynamic Data Analysis
“I attended a 3 day J. A. Woollam Complete Ease Software Training Course 2023 and workshop in the University of Southampton. The event was well planned and organised and it was a huge success and definitely this achievement is only one of many the future will bring.
It was very clear that a lot of thinking and planning went into organising caterers, location etc- Thank you so much Angela Carslake and Shayz Ikram, we deeply enjoyed it! Even months before, we got all the updates and information regarding what to expect and how to install the software.
The workshop introduction by James Hilfiker, gave me a deep understanding about what is happening inside the ellipsometer. It was really interesting to hear from Jianing Sun and Greg Pribil that the ellipsometer can be used to determine many parameters in addition to thickness. The team spirit was amazing, and they taught us very clearly how to model different materials based on transparent or absorbing using plenty of examples.
Thank you so so much!”
Aveena Vhargese, Research Student, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrew
“Reflecting on the recent J. A. Woollam Workshop/Short Course in Southampton, I am hard-pressed to remember a better audience in more than twenty years of teaching. The room was filled to capacity, setting a new attendance record for our annual UK course, but the engagement was exceptional. The attendees had great questions and were happy to participate when called upon.
It was over a decade since I was last in the UK, so I was extremely pleased to witness the organization and connection between Shayz and Angela from QD with the attendees. Due to the record attendance, the Woollam Company sent three teachers this year, and I couldn’t ask for better colleagues to work with than Dr. Jianing Sun and Mr. Greg Pribil. I genuinely believe that our strengths overlapped to form a great team. I am already looking forward to a future return to the UK. I want to personally thank Angela Carslake and Shayz Ikram for their hospitality during a most enjoyable week in sunny Southampton.
James Hilfiker, Applications Engineer, J. A. Woollam Company
Attendees of the CompleteEASE all received a certificate of completion.
Don’t want to miss out next time?
If you’d like to be among the first to receive an invitation to next year’s event, or others, please do join our mailing list.
About ORC and CORNERSTONE
The ORC is a vibrant community of researchers, led by some of the leading figures in the field of photonics, who have contributed significantly to the remarkable growth of the photonics industry, including the optical telecommunication technology that underpins the internet as well as solutions in medicine, biosciences sensing, security and manufacturing.
CORNERSTONE offers an open source, license free Silicon Photonics rapid prototyping foundry based in the UK. Their prototyping platforms utilise industrially-compatible deep-UV projection lithography to enable seamless scaling-up of production volumes, whilst retaining device level innovation capability using high-resolution e-beam lithography and versatility in our process flows and platforms.
What’s Your Application?
Always on hand to answer all your ellipsometry questions, is our Technical Director Dr. Shayz Ikram.
